After quite a lot of success I... fell asleep before managing to open my notebook for #30x30composing last night *and* the night before. Clearly further calibration re: energy levels is needed.

Today is the last day. I'm going to get my breakfast and then do my half hour, so I am not susceptible to the same error.

After today my goal is "compose every weekday" -- maybe for a 25 minute Focusmate session, maybe longer. I plan to use the #AmComposing tag for it.

Apparently this wants to be four part polyphony.

I'm kindof rubbish at writing polyphony (or so I tell myself) so treating it as an exercise. But one line in half an hour means it might take me the rest of the month just to finish a draft.

Also in poking at the text I discovered a bunch of verses that usually get left out. I think I will too, at least this time.

#30x30composing

Time for composing again. Home stretch now!

#30x30composing

Started composing shortly after that @hairyears said it's a half hour until supper. I forgot to set the timer but will do a few more minutes, I think it's almost ready.

I'm working on another Common Meter hymn tune, as the Benedicite just felt overwhelming tonight and I finished the Rossetti. I am reminded why it isn't really my favourite meter!

#30x30composing

It is late but I am setting the timer for 30 minutes so I can put some music into the computer.

#30x30composing

Did my half hour of composing... I think my first draft of the Rossetti is done now, which means tomorrow's composing will probably be transcribing that into the computer.

#30x30composing

Well, my intention around getting composing done earlier in the day has... not really worked well after all, this week.

Here I am though, setting the timer for 30 minutes.

#30x30composing

OK, I had a pretty restful day and it's late but I'm going to try for 15 minutes of composing, at least, so I don't end up with a two-day gap in my streak.

#30x30composing

Sat down to do #30x30composing and fell asleep, so I think I am letting myself off today.

I copied over what I had, and thought some more about the structure of the text. Caught a word I left out yesterday, too.

#30x30composing

OK, today was long, and I blew off composing in the morning (because I did a bunch of other things instead and the timing was weird), so I get to do another bedtime-ish sleepy headed composing session. I think I'll copy over my work on the Benedicite yesterday from my journal to my manuscript notebook.

#30x30composing

That went well, but it's slow going when I have to draw the staves myself, and my hands are freezing now.

I guess I started my "compose in the morning" intention a day earlier than I expected to, too.

#30x30composing

Anyway I have time to kill and a notebook, and a sunny(-ish) park bench mostly out of the wind, so I guess I am doing some composing now.

My manuscript notebook is at home so I can't easily work on yesterday's piece. I think instead I will take @Polyhymnia's suggestion and mess around with the Benedicite.

#30x30composing
#AmComposing

Worked on a setting of "A Chill" by Christina Rossetti. This one will be super short!

#30x30composing

Time for composing again. I am very tired, and keep reaching for my phone to set the timer, and getting distracted instead, so, this should be interesting.

I'll pick a text at random from the ones I saved on Thursday. Here I go.

#30x30composing

I think I am going to ditch the Herbert for now -- I think I need to sit with that text much longer before the composing will work well, right now it feels like a slog for a very ordinary result. I don't want to be stuck on one thing for the rest of this month.

I've done some decent work on getting into the nitty gritty of it, at least, which will still be useful when I come back to it. But sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.

#30x30composing

It's composing o'clock.

#30x30composing

Working on a setting of George Herbert's "Love(III)". I don't like my previous setting.

But it's quite a challenging text, technically. I mean, it's three verses of 10 6 10 6 10 6, (nearly), but the emphases don't really line up, and the discrepancy between line lengths is difficult in a way that doesn't actually get better if it's through-composed rather than in verses.

But identifying that issue means I can think about how to work with that and embrace it.

#30x30composing

Tired! in the end I looked at lots of texts on the train, but didn't do any actual composing. Now I'm settling down with bits of my bedtime routine; some of these have a bit of a lag/wait, so I'll do my 30 minutes of composing now.

#30x30composing

Two hymn tunes transcribed, with some minor editing along the way.

Tomorrow will be a mobile composing session -- I have a long day of church stuff and gardening. I don't want to carry my computer so that means starting another new thing. I might try and settle on a text tonight though.

#30x30composing